Talking to Americans about Trump’s attacks on Canada

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.—Wayne Batchelor, a 72-year-old in northern North Carolina, tries to “love everybody,” and he would like you to know that he has nothing but love for Canadians, who are, it goes without saying, “fine people.”

He does, however, strongly object to Canada’s milk tariffs, whose existence he has recently become aware of, via Fox News and other television stations, because of the complaints of President Donald Trump.

Derrick McNeil, 44, a Walmart employee, is dismayed by Donald Trump's attacks on Canada. In a crisis, he said, “our enemies ain’t gonna be with us — our allies are gonna be with us. But he’s makin’ it hard for them to be with us.” (Daniel Dale / Toronto Star)

And, therefore, he has no problem with Trump’s bashing of Canada and its prime minister.

“As far as Trudeau: I don’t think it’s right what they’re charging for the milk,” Batchelor, a retired IBM employee wearing a Tractor Supply Company baseball cap, said Monday at a Walmart. “The 270 per cent. I think he’s dead wrong doing that. I think what Trump is after, and I think eventually we’ll get it worldwide, is fair and equal trade. So I’m all for what Trump’s trying to do.”

Derrick McNeil, an off-duty Walmart freight handler, was sitting on a bench nearby. He was dismayed by Trump’s words about Canada.

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“That’s one of our allies,” said McNeil, 44, who was dressed in Rastafarian symbols. “He’s so far up Putin’s tail, he don’t know the difference: he go after our allies but buddy up to our enemies.

“And when everything hits the fan, our enemies ain’t gonna be with us — our allies are gonna be with us. But he’s makin’ it hard for them to be with us.”

Trump’s regular grumbling about Canadian trade practices has taken a vitriolic turn this week. The barrage of personal insults from Trump and his aides has alarmed politicians on both sides of the border and raised questions about the immediate future of the bilateral relationship.

Last Saturday, the president called Trudeau “dishonest and weak.” On Sunday, two of his top advisers went on television and called Trudeau a bunch of other disparaging things. One said there was a “special place in hell” for the prime minister.

Canada is the top destination for North Carolina exports, buying more last year than Mexico and China combined. On Monday, we asked 35 people shopping at a Walmart in Rocky Mount, N.C., a city of about 55,000 an hour east of Raleigh, what they thought of all this.

This part of Rocky Mount is located in one of the most politically divided places in America, Nash County. Trump won the county, which is 56 per cent white and 40 per cent black, by the slimmest of margins: 48.9 per cent to Hillary Clinton’s 48.8 per cent.

Now it appears people there are divided on the merits of lambasting Canada.

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There was strong opposition to Trump’s remarks from people who generally dislike him. But there was support, with only mild criticism sprinkled in, from people who generally like him.

The unscientific sample — most of the people who agreed to speak on the record were over the age of 55 — showed just how quickly the president’s arguments can take hold with his devoted base. And it suggested that Trump might be able to single-handedly damage Canada’s reputation with a significant chunk of the American public, turning it into another partisan issue rather than the subject of universal agreement.

“Whatever he’s for, I’m for,” said Effie Pearson, 76, when asked about Trump attacking Canada. “I think he’s got the knowledge enough to know what is right and what is wrong. If he thinks that’s right, I’ll go with him.”

In a February poll by Gallup, 94 per cent of Americans had a favourable view of Canada. In a 2016 poll by NBC, Canada had 75 per cent approval, 3 per cent disapproval. But in a poll this weekend by Public Policy Polling, just 66 per cent approved of Canada; 13 per cent disapproved, 22 per cent were unsure.

“I think Trump is right,” said Kenneth Pittman, 78, a retired small-businessman. “I saw on television where our trade deficit with Canada is like hundreds of millions of dollars” — U.S. statistics show a U.S. surplus of billions; Canadian statistics, calculated differently, show a U.S. deficit of billions — “and his tariff is going to sort of equal that out soon.”

Gail Brown, 63, became furious when asked about Trump’s words about Canada. She called Trump “the enemy.”

“What have the Canadians done to you?” said Brown, retired from a credit union. “He’s just so disruptive. He causes problems everywhere he goes. And for the Canadians, it ain’t gonna be over until he says it’s over.”

Tom Ellis, who reluctantly voted for Clinton because he preferred a “socialist” to a “sociopath,” asked: “How dumb can you get?”

“Canada has been like a brother to the United States forever,” said Ellis, 64, a retired state employee. “They’re one of our best trading partners. We’re essentially equal in the amount we trade back and forth. We have all the mutual interests, self-protection and such. He doesn’t even want a border wall across there!”

David Pride, a self-employed 59-year-old, thought Trump was lashing at Trudeau out of ignorant instinct: “He don’t know any better. I don’t think he should do that. But that’s all he knows.” Others, though, immediately subscribed to aide Larry Kudlow’s claim that the onslaught against Trudeau was necessary to demonstrate strength in advance of Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un.

“I think it’s really just a show right now,” said Ray Gardner, 73, a retired maintenance mechanic. “I think they’ll get this ironed out. I think they’ll probably have another meeting and get things ironed out, probably after he gets things rolling with Korea.”

Mel Rose, 74, said he was appalled by Trump’s behaviour at the G7.

“I was never a Trump supporter to begin with, but his actions just indicate he’s not fit for the job,” he said. “He has no sense whatsoever of diplomacy, no courtesy, no manners whatsoever. To show up late for meetings, to leave early, to criticize everyone at the meetings including the host — he’s not presidential at all.”

Many of the people we approached said they had not heard of the spat with Canada at all. Retired salesman Joe Ezzell, 84, expressed surprise at Trump’s words. He said he had never once heard anybody criticize Canada.

But he said he didn’t think the prime minister of Canada should be immune from harsh criticism from the U.S. president.

“Jesus Christ came to this earth,” he said. “Didn’t they criticize everything he did?”

Bryan Pelletier, an unemployed 37-year-old, said he couldn’t, as a practising Christian, denounce the president. But he offered some advice to his northern neighbours.

“If you’re a Canadian, I wouldn’t take it personally,” he said. “That’s just who Trump is.”